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Ten days before it was due to be
held, and just before the world championship
Rally Italia Sardegna was run, the organisers of
the Italian championship Costa Smeralda Rally,
the previous weekend, postponed the event.
Costa Smeralda was due to be the final round of
the CIR, Italy’s premier rally championship. The
championship had already been won by Paolo
Andreucci and the main remaining outstanding
title was for manufacturers, between the
strong favourites Peugeot and Skoda. Officially
the rally was postponed for organisational
problems, due to the difficulty of arranging the
necessary safety facilities, already used the
week before on the world championship Rally
Italia Sardegna. It seems the event will now be
held in mid-November.
»
John ‘Penti’ Powell from Trinidad
and Tobago has been registered by M-Sport
as the official teammate for Ott Tanak on the
Rally Catalunya Costa Daurada, the final round
of the 2012 WRC series. This will be Powell’s
first world championship rally. Powell’s recent
successes in the West Indies include outright
victory in the Rally Trinidad in 2010 and 2012,
and in Rally Jamaica in 2011, always with
Subaru Impreza World Rally Cars. This year
Powell has been contesting the FIA Nacam
regional championship in which he is lying third,
the best non-Mexican driver.
»
Important recommendations are
expected this week regarding the 2013 calendar
for the new Eurosport Events promoted
European Rally Championship.
»
Finnish rally champion Esapekka
Lappi gained valuable asphalt rally experience
in Spain when he finished second best S2000
car on the Rallye Sierra Morena, based at
Cordoba, in the Fabia S2000 rallied earlier this
season by Hayden Paddon on SWRC events.
»
Champion Demoted! 2012 WRC
Academy champion elect Fiesta R2 driver Elfyn
Evans has been entered in this weekend’s
Rallye du Condroz-Huy in Belgium in a Fiesta R1.
Proton driver Alister McRae
has won the APRC China Rally
for the third year running, and
for the second successive year
on this event has beaten Chris
Atkinson, who clinched the
APRC regional title at the final
round.
The rally was led through
Day 1 by Atkinson’s MRF Skoda
teammate Gaurav Gill, but on the
first stage of Day 2 Gill’s engine
failed, the third spectacular Skoda
Fabia S2000 engine failure in
recent weeks caused by a broken
connecting rod. This crisis follows
another series of Skoda engine
problems caused earlier this year
by faulty valve springs.
McRae’s Satria Neo S2000
team-mate Juha Salo finished
third overall, after recovering
from a driveshaft failure on
Stage 2. Yuya Sumiyama finished
fourth in his Subaru Impreza R4,
winning him the FIA Asia Cup,
after rolling his car and suffering
rear suspension damage.
Karamjit Singh, the Malaysian
driver who in 2002 was the
inaugural FIA Production Car
world champion, won the 2012
APRC two-wheel drive cup in a
two-wheel-drive version Proton
Satria Neo.
The rally was based at
Longyou and run in very hot
conditions, up to 36 degrees on
Day 1, or gravel and concrete
based roads.
China hat-trick for McRae
Weather halts Valais
A sudden change in weather from
autumn sunshine to snow, rain and
fog caused the final stage of the Rallye
du Valais, the final round of the FIA’s
regional European Rally Championship
to be cancelled and another to be
stopped.
After the Belgian driver Pieter Tsjoen
lost time when he rolled his Citroen DS3
RRC while leading the event, the event
was dominated by local Swiss Peugeot
drivers.
Tsjoen recovered from 88th position
to fourth at the finish, on the debut of
Citroen’s new version World Rally Car. No
fewer than five different drivers held the
lead during the event.
Evgeniy Novikov is to drive his Ford
Fiesta WRC on DMack tyres on Rally
Catalunya, the final round of the 2012
World Rally Championship, and his car
will be fully branded accordingly.
This is the reason that he is not
being entered on this occasion by the
M-Sport Ford World Rally Team, which
is contracted to using Michelins, even
though DMack tyres are officially
approved by the FIA for WRC use.
M-Sport have nominated the guest
West Indian driver John ‘Penti’ Powell
to drive car number six instead, which
will be the ex-Block and ex-Habig car.
DMack tyres will also be used in
Spain on the Fiesta WRC of Martin
Prokop, who will drive the well
travelled Fiesta last used by Al
Suwaidi in Germany in RRC guise, now
converted back to WRC specification.
Prokop’s own car meanwhile has
been returned to M-Sport for detailed
investigation into the frustrating
misfiring and power loss problems
which have plagued the Czech driver
on the French and Italian rallies.
Tyre change for Novikov
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GPWEEK.com // 16
GPWEEK.com //
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